Most overrated books

[Snowfalling]

I'll probably get flamed for some of these choices but here's my list:

1. Brick lane by Monica Ali. So badly written and researched, i was embarrassed for the author, as I'm from a similar background to her.

1. The God of small things. There was one sentence that was repeated over and over again to the point of toe curling cringe. Something about the twin's hair bobbing. Also generally didn't enjoy the writing or plot. Just absolute crap. I don't get the adulation for this at all.

1. Anything by Maggie o'Farrell or Kate Atkinson. I know people love them both, i just don't get it.

1. Sophie Hannah's more recent books are just dire. The earlier ones were great.

1. Catch 22. Just gibberish. You probably have to be drugged up to enjoy it.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

So which books do you think are overrated?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Yes, I've read it from cover to cover. No, it's not something I'd recommend to anyone. And no, Victoria, it definitely didn't change my life!

18th century was my area of specialty and I had the dubious pleasure of teaching Tristram Shandy to undergrads.

At first I couldn’t bear it and then I found that in a certain frame of mind (literally nothing else to do, alcohol to hand) it became hilarious. It’s one of my favourite books now.

If you can adapt to the very slow pace it pays dividends.

How was DHL a misogynist?

I haven't seen anyone claim he was.

Er check a few posts done X says he's "A grade A misogynist" and a few posts above that another poster said he hated women. Am curious....

Anything by Dickens - long winded, verbose, dull, dull, dull.

To Kill A Mockingbird - I studied this for O level English Lit, and didn't enjoy it much the first time I read it - and by the time I had picked it apart, written essays on it, and re-read it several times whilst revising for the exam, I hated it. I haven't read the new Harper Lee book, and have no intention of doing so.

X says he's "A grade A misogynist" and a few posts above that another poster said he hated women. Am curious....

Ah, missed those. Well, I don't know. I had him down more as a misanthropic proto-Nazi: wanting to lead the sick and maimed into a 'lethal' Crystal Palace and gas them (a comment made pre-Holocaust), and complaining about the 'dribbling palsied pulseless' people who make up England.

Allegedly he also wrote to Katherine Mansfield that she revolted him stewing in her consumption and he hoped she'd die. That again I'd put down to general misanthropy rather than hating women specifically. That TB malarkey could make people pretty grumpy by all accounts.

You are of course right about James Joyce and the rest. Ezra Pound, T S Eliot and Wyndham Lewis did and said some appalling stuff - and had some nasty political beliefs - too.

But some of their writing was great!

Pride and Fucking Prejudice.

I've said it once, I'll say it again, I will be saying it on my death bed.

Absolutely cobblers. The only one I even vaguely like is Wickham - who can blame him for doing a runner, they're all repellant.

And do I really need to give my thoughts on Thomas the Wank Engine again?

Reposted from a previous thread:

*And don't even get me started on Thomas. Every day, the same.

Fat controller: Thomas, please go from A to B and complete this simple task.

Thomas: I know what will really impress the Fat controller! I'll go off on a ludicrous deviation, get myself into some sort of easily avoidable trouble and wait for one of the other engines to come to my rescue...

Thomas: Oh, Gordon, you're so grumpy!

Gordon: I was happy enough until you came along, you incompetent, brown-nosing little bell-end.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

The Lovely Bones is the only book I've ever failed to finish. I tried and gave up twice.

It's just so bloody boring.

@Amibeingnaive - that is a perfect take-off of Bloody Thomas!

Eat Pray Love

Someone bought DS a full set of Thomas books when he was a baby.

Really creative way of telling a new parent you hate them.

Actually the same person got DD a set of Dora books.

I now think she really does hate me.

Someone bought DS a full set of Thomas books when he was a baby.

Really creative way of telling a new parent you hate them

I would add Mr Men and Little Miss to that list. Utter crap.

On Chesil Beach and The Children Act.

Both remind me of being in high school completing a timed descriptive story writing assignment, starting off well with lovely language then run out of time so have to finish it with a vague rushed ending.
My Mum passed both on to me and gleefully cackled when I gave them back.

Both remind me of being in high school completing a timed descriptive story writing assignment, starting off well with lovely language then run out of time so have to finish it with a vague rushed ending.

Totally agree with this. Both were shite. I’ll never understand what anyone sees in him.

Its a common acccusation against DHL (misogyny).

I just cant see it, especially after reading The Rainbow.
He could be an awful, spiteful fucker, but to everybody. He also let his wife go off with other men because he couldnt fulfil his 'husbandly duties'.

www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/05/why-dh-lawrence-misogynist-male-author-has-lots-of-female-fans/275680/

Oh Ive got a good one. Not actually a boring book, but bloody hell sooooo pretentious- The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Re DH Lawrence: I'm not so bothered about things like being anti women getting the vote (in Sons & Lovers) - you can't expect an author to be free of the prejudices of his/her time, and you also can't assume that they share the views of their characters.

What bugs me is that he doesn't see women as fully human. He cannot imagine women having an emotional or intellectual life that isn't centred on men. I can't think of a single female author who treats men in this way.

There's loads of this sort of stuff:

“And woman is the same as horses: two wills act in opposition inside her. With one will she wants to subject herself utterly. With the other she wants to bolt, and pitch her rider to perdition. Boak.

I do like some of his poetry though.

Thanks for all the DHL stuff, very interesting. I was a teenage fan and reread lately and still loved his novels.

On the over rated front. Angela's Ashes, I can't believe it was such a hit. A very cliched way of writing . And another misery memoir Once in a House of Fire which was s one hit wonder hugely popular and IMO a rant of incidences.
Poets who are very over rated I find are Years, Browing and Bishop.

Im not so sure-in The Rainbow thats exactly the main theme. He writes about Ursula Brangwen trying to find intellectual fulfilment, going against everybody to get educated, eventually becoming a teacher and persuing a romantic relationship with a woman when she finds Anton not up to it.

He has some really good short stories as well as poems. He made me want a pet white peacock for years.

I’ve never heard of Years and Browing! Yeats is a wonderful poet.

Remembrance of Things Past. Read 7 bloody books waiting for my mind to be blown and closed the last one with mind unblown.